View source for Hesketh 308C

{{Short description|Formula One motor racing car}}
{{Infobox racing car
| Car_name = Hesketh 308C<br>Wolf–Williams FW05
| Image = [[File:Wolf-Williams FW05 at Goodwood 2010 crop.jpg|frameless|upright=1.25]]
| caption = Wolf–Williams FW05 at Goodwood in 2010
| Category = [[Formula One]]
| WC_results_only = Yes
| Constructor = [[Hesketh Racing|Hesketh]]/[[Wolf–Williams Racing|Wolf–Williams]]
| Designer = [[Harvey Postlethwaite]]
| Predecessor = [[Hesketh 308B]] (Hesketh) <br>[[Wolf–Williams FW04]] (Wolf–Williams)
| Successor = [[Hesketh 308D]]
| Team = [[Hesketh Racing]]<br>[[Wolf–Williams Racing]]
| Drivers = {{flagicon|GBR}} [[James Hunt]] <br> {{flagicon|BEL}} [[Jacky Ickx]] <br> {{flagicon|FRA}} [[Michel Leclère]] <br> {{flagicon|ITA}} [[Arturo Merzario]]
| Technical ref = <ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.ultimatecarpage.com/spec/4301/Hesketh-308C-Cosworth.html|title=Hesketh 308C|accessdate=31 December 2015}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.ultimatecarpage.com/spec/4300/Williams-FW05-Cosworth.html|title=Wolf–Williams FW05|accessdate=31 December 2015}}</ref>
| Chassis = [[Aluminium]] [[monocoque]], with engine as a fully stressed member.
| Front suspension = [[1975 Formula One season|1975]]: lower wishbones, top rockers, in-board rubber springs over dampers, anti-roll bar. <br> [[1976 Formula One season|1976]]: lower wishbones, top rockers, in-board coil springs over dampers, anti-roll bar
| Rear suspension = [[1975 Formula One season|1975]]: single top links, double lower links, twin radius arms, rubber springs over dampers, anti-roll bar. <br> [[1976 Formula One season|1976]]: single top links, double lower links, twin radius arms, coil springs over dampers, anti-roll bar
| Length = 
| Width =
| Height = 
| Wheelbase =
| Track = 
| Engine name = [[Ford Motor Company|Ford]] [[Cosworth DFV]]
| Capacity = {{convert|2993|cc|cuin|1|abbr=on}}
| Configuration = 90° [[V8 engine|V8]],
| Turbo/NA = [[naturally aspirated]],
| Engine position = [[Rear mid-engine, rear-wheel drive layout|mid-mounted]].
| Gearbox name = [[1975 Formula One season|1975]]: [[Hewland]] FGA 400 5-speed [[Manual transmission|manual]]<br> [[1976 Formula One season|1976]]: [[Hewland]] DG 400 5-speed [[Manual transmission|manual]]
| Gears = 
| Type = 
| Differential = 
| Weight = [[1975 Formula One season|1975]]: {{convert|580|kg|lb|abbr=on}} <br> [[1976 Formula One season|1976]]: {{convert|595|kg|lb|abbr=on}}
| Fuel = [[Duckhams]] (1975) <br> [[Petrofina|FINA]] (1976)
| Lubricants = [[Duckhams]] (1975) <br> [[Petrofina|FINA]] (1976)
| Tyres = [[Goodyear Tire and Rubber Company|Goodyear]]
| Debut = [[1975 Italian Grand Prix]] 
| Races = 18
| Wins = 0
| Poles = 0
| Fastest_laps = 0
}}
The '''Hesketh 308C''' was a [[Formula One]] [[racing car]] designed by [[Harvey Postlethwaite]] and used by [[Hesketh Racing]] in the latter stages of the [[1975 Formula One season]]. The car featured the rubber suspension which Postlethwaite had pioneered on the preceding [[Hesketh 308B|308B]] model and a [[Ford-Cosworth DFV]] engine. In 1976, the car was acquired by [[Wolf–Williams Racing]] and rebranded as the '''Wolf–Williams FW05'''.

==Racing history==

===Hesketh 308C===
The 308C wasn't seen until the latter part of the 1975 season. Like the 308B on which it was based, the 308C was very narrow at the front, tapering out to wide and low sidepods, with the main radiators in front of the rear wheels. The rubber suspension was inboard, and operated by rocker arms.<ref name="Brown">{{cite web|last1=Brown|first1=Allen|title=Hesketh 308C car-by-car histories|url=http://www.oldracingcars.com/hesketh/308c/|website=oldracingcars.com|accessdate=24 September 2017}}</ref> It was entered by Hesketh Racing for Englishman [[James Hunt]] to drive. The 308C made its debut at the [[1975 Italian Grand Prix|Italian Grand Prix]] and Hunt finished fifth.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.grandprix.com/gpe/rr263.html |title=Grand Prix results, Italian GP 1975 |accessdate=18 July 2016 |publisher=grandprix.com}}</ref> For the final race of the 1975 season, in the [[1975 United States Grand Prix|United States]] the Englishman finished fourth.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.grandprix.com/gpe/rr264.html |title=Grand Prix results, United States GP 1975 |accessdate=18 July 2016 |publisher=grandprix.com}}</ref>

===Wolf–Williams FW05===
Before the start of the 1976 season, Canadian oil millionaire [[Walter Wolf (industrialist)|Walter Wolf]] bought 60% of Frank Williams Racing Cars and the team became Wolf–Williams Racing. However, Frank Williams was retained as team manager. soon afterwards Dr. Harvey Postlethwaite arrived as chief engineer. Simultaneously Wolf bought the assets of the Hesketh team that had recently withdrawn from F1. 

The team was based in the Williams facility at Reading but used most of the cars and equipment once owned by Hesketh Racing. The team inherited the Hesketh 308C car used by [[Hesketh Racing]] during the final races of 1975, rebranding it as the Wolf–Williams FW05 and the Williams FW04 was similarly rebranded as the Wolf–Williams FW04, although it was only used in the opening race of the season, the [[1976 Brazilian Grand Prix]].<ref name="8W">{{cite web|url=http://8w.forix.com/williams.html |title=From Rags to Riches |date=December 1998 |accessdate=17 July 2016 |publisher=8W FORIX/Autosport}}</ref>

The team had two new drivers, for [[1976 Brazilian Grand Prix|Brazil]] Italian [[Renzo Zorzi]] drove the FW04 and Belgian Jacky Ickx drove the FW05. Zorzi outqualified Ickx (17th and 19th), and both cars finished the race with Ickx eighth and Zorzi ninth. After this race, Wolf–Williams had two FW05s at their disposal and so the FW04 was put aside. 

However, Zorzi was replaced by Frenchman [[Michel Leclère]] for the remaining first half of the season because the Italian's sponsorship funds ran out. At [[1976 South African Grand Prix|South Africa]] the Belgian outqualified the Frenchman (19th and 22nd), and both cars finished the race with the Frenchman 13th eighth and the Belgian 16th.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.grandprix.com/gpe/rr266.html |title=Grand Prix results, South African GP 1976 |accessdate=18 July 2016 |website=grandprix.com}}</ref> Both Drivers failed to qualify for the [[1976 United States Grand Prix West|United States Grand Prix West]] because the [[Formula One Constructors Association]] had decided to limit the field to twenty starters for safety reasons, because of the narrow concrete canyons necessitated by the street layout. 

At [[1976 Spanish Grand Prix|Spain]] Ickx outqualified Leclère (21st and 23rd), and both cars finished the race with Ickx seventh eighth and Leclère tenth. The Belgian failed to qualify for his home race, the [[1976 Belgian Grand Prix|Belgian Grand Prix]] and the Frenchman qualified 25th and finished 11th. Ickx failed to qualify for [[1976 Monaco Grand Prix|Monaco]] and Leclère qualified 18th and finished 11th, Wolf–Williams had only one car for the [[1976 Swedish Grand Prix|Swedish Grand Prix]] as Ickx was busy winning the [[1976 24 Hours of Le Mans|24 Hours of Le Mans]] with [[Gijs van Lennep]] in a [[Porsche 936]], The Frenchman qualified 25th and retired with engine failure. Ickx returned for the [[1976 French Grand Prix|French Grand Prix]] and outqualified Leclère (19th and 22nd), and both cars finished the race with Ickx tenth eighth and Leclère 13th. 

Wolf–Williams had reduced their efforts to one car for [[1976 British Grand Prix|Britain]] because Leclère left the team, Ickx failed to qualify and was fired after the race. 

Ickx was replaced by Italian [[Arturo Merzario]] and the team still only had one car, The [[1976 German Grand Prix|German Grand Prix]] saw Merzario qualify 21st and the race was red flag on the second lap because [[Brett Lunger]]'s [[Surtees Racing Organisation|Surtees]] and [[Harald Ertl]]'s [[Hesketh Racing|Hesketh]] both hit [[Niki Lauda]]'s [[Scuderia Ferrari|Ferrari]]. [[Guy Edwards]]'s [[Hesketh Racing|Hesketh]] managed to avoid the Ferrari. All three drivers stopped and tried to get Lauda out of the flames and they were joined by Merzario, who stopped the Wolf–Williams after seeing the wreck. The Italian managed to make the restart but retired on lap three because of brake failure. Merzario retired in [[1976 Austrian Grand Prix|Austria]] and [[1976 Dutch Grand Prix|Holland]] with crashes. 

The [[1976 Italian Grand Prix|Italian Grand Prix]] qualifying session on Friday was wet, so the dry session on Saturday was to provide the field with their best times. After this session, Brett Lunger's Surtees, Merzario and [[Otto Stuppacher]]'s privately entered Tyrrell had failed to qualify. [[John Watson (driver)|John Watson]]'s Penske and the [[McLaren]]'s of [[James Hunt]] and [[Jochen Mass]] qualified in eighth ninth and tenth positions, but their times were later disallowed due to fuel irregularities. 

This meant that their Friday times counted for their grid positions. As a result, these three drivers were the three slowest and were deemed not to have qualified, allowing Lunger, Merzario and Stuppacher on to the grid. Stuppacher had already left the circuit and flown back home to Austria, so could not take his place on the grid. This promoted Hunt back into the 26 qualifiers. Merzario withdrew due to brake problems) and promoted Mass, and later Guy Edwards Hesketh also decided to withdraw in order to let Watson race. 

For [[1976 Canadian Grand Prix|Canadian Grand Prix]] Wolf–Williams turned up with New Zealander [[Chris Amon]] in a second car but after a spin he was hit by Harald Ertl's Hesketh and both cars seriously damaged. Amon suffered bruising to his legs and choose not to take part in the race and the Italian qualified 24th and retired with a crash. 

Amon was replaced by Australian [[Warwick Brown]] for the [[1976 United States Grand Prix|United States Grand Prix East]], He qualified 23rd and finished 14th, Merzario qualified 25th and retired with a crash. 

For the final race of the 1976 season, in [[1976 Japanese Grand Prix|Japan]] Brown was replaced by Local man [[Masami Kuwashima]], He took part in the first practice session for the race, but proved rather slow. In any case, later that day his sponsors withdrew their financing of the Wolf–Williams deal, and [[Frank Williams (Formula One)|Frank Williams]] promptly replaced Kuwashima with Austrian [[Hans Binder]] for the second practice session and the race itself. In qualifying Merzario 19th and Binder 25th, Both men retired in the race Merzario with a broken gearbox and Binder with a wheel issue. However the problem with the FW05 was the car turned out to be overweight.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.ultimatecarpage.com/car/4301/Hesketh-308C-Cosworth.html|title=1975 Hesketh 308C Cosworth – Images, Specifications and Information|work=Ultimatecarpage.com|accessdate=17 July 2016}}</ref>

At season's end, Wolf decided to restructure the team, removing Frank Williams from the manager's job. Disillusioned, Williams left the team altogether, to set up [[Williams Grand Prix Engineering]] with [[Patrick Head]] in 1977. Wolf brought 100% of Wolf–Williams Racing after buying the 40% share from Williams and the team became [[Walter Wolf Racing]].

==Complete Formula One World Championship results==
([[:Template:F1 driver results legend 2|key]]) 
{| class="wikitable" style="text-align:center; font-size:95%"
! Year
! Entrant
! Chassis
! Engine
! Tyres
! Drivers
! 1
! 2
! 3
! 4
! 5
! 6
! 7
! 8
! 9
! 10
! 11
! 12
! 13
! 14
! 15
! 16
! WCC
! Points
|-
| rowspan="2"| [[1975 Formula One season|1975]]
| rowspan="2"| [[Hesketh Racing]]
| rowspan="2"| Hesketh 308C
| rowspan="2"| [[Ford Motor Company|Ford]] [[Cosworth DFV]] 3.0 [[V8 engine|V8]]
| rowspan="2"| {{Goodyear}}
| 
| [[1975 Argentine Grand Prix|ARG]]
| [[1975 Brazilian Grand Prix|BRA]]
| [[1975 South African Grand Prix|RSA]]
| [[1975 Spanish Grand Prix|ESP]]
| [[1975 Monaco Grand Prix|MON]]
| [[1975 Belgian Grand Prix|BEL]]
| [[1975 Swedish Grand Prix|SWE]]
| [[1975 Dutch Grand Prix|NED]]
| [[1975 French Grand Prix|FRA]]
| [[1975 British Grand Prix|GBR]]
| [[1975 German Grand Prix|GER]]
| [[1975 Austrian Grand Prix|AUT]]
| [[1975 Italian Grand Prix|ITA]]
| [[1975 United States Grand Prix|USA]]
|
|
| rowspan="2"| '''4th*'''
| rowspan="2"| '''33*'''
|-
| [[James Hunt]]
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
| style="background:#dfffdf;"| 5
| style="background:#dfffdf;"| 4
|
|
|-
| rowspan="8"| [[1976 Formula One season|1976]]
| rowspan="8"| [[Wolf–Williams Racing]]
| rowspan="8"| Wolf–Williams FW05
| rowspan="8"| [[Ford Motor Company|Ford]] [[Cosworth DFV]] 3.0 [[V8 engine|V8]]
| rowspan="8"| {{Goodyear}}
|
| [[1976 Brazilian Grand Prix|BRA]]
| [[1976 South African Grand Prix|RSA]]
| [[1976 United States Grand Prix West|USW]]
| [[1976 Spanish Grand Prix|ESP]]
| [[1976 Belgian Grand Prix|BEL]]
| [[1976 Monaco Grand Prix|MON]]
| [[1976 Swedish Grand Prix|SWE]]
| [[1976 French Grand Prix|FRA]]
| [[1976 British Grand Prix|GBR]]
| [[1976 German Grand Prix|GER]]
| [[1976 Austrian Grand Prix|AUT]]
| [[1976 Dutch Grand Prix|NED]]
| [[1976 Italian Grand Prix|ITA]]
| [[1976 Canadian Grand Prix|CAN]]
| [[1976 United States Grand Prix|USE]]
| [[1976 Japanese Grand Prix|JPN]]
| rowspan="8"| '''—'''
| rowspan="8"| '''0'''
|-
| [[Jacky Ickx]]
| style="background:#CFCFFF;"| 8
| style="background:#CFCFFF;"| 16
| style="background:#FFCFCF;"| DNQ
| style="background:#CFCFFF;"| 7
| style="background:#FFCFCF;"| DNQ
| style="background:#FFCFCF;"| DNQ
|
| style="background:#CFCFFF;"| 10
| style="background:#FFCFCF;"| DNQ
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|-
| [[Michel Leclère]]
|
| style="background:#CFCFFF;"| 13
| style="background:#FFCFCF;"| DNQ
| style="background:#CFCFFF;"| 10
| style="background:#CFCFFF;"| 11
| style="background:#CFCFFF;"| 11
| style="background:#EFCFFF;"| Ret
| style="background:#CFCFFF;"| 13
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|-
| [[Arturo Merzario]]
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
| style="background:#EFCFFF;"| Ret
| style="background:#EFCFFF;"| Ret
| style="background:#EFCFFF;"| Ret
| style="background:#FFFFFF;"| DNS
| style="background:#EFCFFF;"| Ret
| style="background:#EFCFFF;"| Ret
| style="background:#EFCFFF;"| Ret
|-
| [[Chris Amon]]
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
| style="background:#FFFFFF;"| DNS
|
|
|-
| [[Warwick Brown]]
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
| style="background:#CFCFFF;"| 14
|
|-
| [[Masami Kuwashima]]
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
| style="background:#FFFFFF;"| DNS
|-
| [[Hans Binder]]
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
| style="background:#EFCFFF;"| Ret
|}
<nowiki>*</nowiki> 5 points scored with the 308C; remaining points scored with the 308B

==Non-championship results==
([[:Template:F1 driver results legend 3|key]])
{| class="wikitable" style="text-align:center; font-size:95%"
! Year
! Entrant
! Chassis
! Engine
! Tyres
! Drivers
! 1
! 2
! 3
|-
| rowspan="2"| {{F1|1975}}
| rowspan="2"| [[Hesketh Racing]]
| rowspan="2"| Hesketh 308C
| rowspan="2"| [[Ford Motor Company|Ford]] [[Cosworth DFV]] 3.0 [[V8 engine|V8]]
| rowspan="2"| {{Goodyear}} 
|
| [[1975 Race of Champions|ROC]] 
| [[1975 BRDC International Trophy|INT]]
| [[1975 Swiss Grand Prix|SUI]]
|-
| [[James Hunt]]
|
|
| style="background:#CFCFFF;"| 8
|-
| rowspan="4"| {{F1|1976}}
| rowspan="2"| [[Hesketh Racing]]
| rowspan="2"| Hesketh 308C
| rowspan="4"| [[Ford Motor Company|Ford]] [[Cosworth DFV]] 3.0 [[V8 engine|V8]]
| rowspan="4"| {{Goodyear}} 
|
| [[1976 Race of Champions|ROC]] 
| [[1976 BRDC International Trophy|INT]]
|
|-
| rowspan="2"| [[Jacky Ickx]] 
| style="background:#FFDF9F;"| 3
|
|
|-
| rowspan="2"| [[Wolf–Williams Racing]]
| rowspan="2"| Wolf–Williams FW05
|  
| style="background:#EFCFFF;"| Ret 
|
|-
| [[Mario Andretti]]
|
| style="background:#CFCFFF;"| 7
|
|}

==References==
{{Reflist}}

{{Hesketh Racing}}
{{Frank Williams Racing Cars}}
{{F1 cars 1975}}
{{F1 cars 1976}}

[[Category:Hesketh Formula One cars]]